Welcome to the Careers Homepage

Do you want a career that is exciting and varied? Do you want to make a real difference to the lives of people all over the world? How about using your mathematics or statistical knowledge to help develop and trial lifesaving medicines?

Then working as a statistician or programmer in medical research could be for you! Click on the links below to find out more…
To learn more about clinical trials and the basic statistical concepts involved, please visit our Schools/Education page.

Job Roles

Find out about different job roles: Role of a Medical Statistician, Role of a Statistical, Programmer, Job Requirements, Job Prospects, Perks of working in Medical Research

Student Placements

Placement and internship opportunities for students are available within medical research and are commonly advertised directly on company websites. For inspiration we have compiled a list below of companies who offer placement schemes.

PSI Careers Event

This event is aimed at students with an interest in the analysis of data within pharmaceuticals, healthcare and/or medical research.

Other Careers Events

A listing of careers events run by other organisations.

University Courses

To work as a medical statistician, most companies require at least an MSc in Statistics, or an MSc with a significant statistical component, or a relevant subject. To work as a statistical programmer, most companies require at least a BSc in Mathematics or Statistics or a relevant subject.  Exact educational requirements can vary by company, so we would always recommend checking the job description for each role to confirm what qualifications are required.

Free Student Membership

PSI membership is free to all students & teachers and is valid from January – December (renewal every January)

Career Progression

If you’ve already made the choice to work as a statistician or statistical programmer within medical research, then you might be wondering what career paths will be open to you in the future.

How to Find a Job

Finding a job in any industry is daunting, not just medical research. This page aims to take you through the process including general advice, what to expect when you apply, and current vacancies. To find out more about life as a medical statistician or programmer and what to expect in your career, please visit our Job Roles page or Career Progression page.

Introduction to the Pharmaceutical Industry

The scope of medical research is vast and is also a successful and growing professional environment. It rises to the varying challenges of the health care industry, not just research, development and manufacturing of new treatments and devices, but also improving the effectiveness of medicines in a broader way.

Statisticians and statistical programmers work on designing, analysing and interpreting clinical trials which are conducted to progress the research, development, manufacture and marketing of products for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

The medical research industry is made up of a wide range of companies - large and small, local, national and international, some with manufacturing and marketing facilities, others concentrating solely on research and development - as well as Contract Research Organisations (CROs) and specialised Clinical Trials Units (CTUs).

CROs frequently provide their research and development services to pharmaceutical companies and they often work in tandem with the manufacturing companies to achieve product approval from the regulatory authorities around the world. There are strong links between CROs and pharmaceutical companies and many within the industry work on cross-functional and cross-company teams that encompass both Pharmaceutical and CRO colleagues working in partnership with one another.

CTUs are also an essential component of medical research, by designing, conducting and analysing clinical trials, in order to determine whether a particular therapy warrants further investigation. They often work in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, academic partners and charity organisations.

Upcoming Events

PSI ToxSIG Webinar: Good statistical practices to tackle the lack of reproducibility in preclinical research

In this webinar we will explain the how to understand the sequences of issues and how to fix it in order to drastically improve the replicability of the results. Through example the presentation will cover concepts such as OFAT vs DoE, p-values and Bayesian statistics and Power vs Assurance as easy opportunities to improve robustness of decisions.

PSI Webinar: Using visualisation to help make decisions

This webinar will feature presentations from 3 speakers on the topic of Using Visualisations to Help Make Decisions.

Introduction To Industry Training Course 2020

The ITIT course will take 25 delegates new to the industry on a complete drug development experience from discovery to marketing. They will visit 6 companies from October 2020 to July 2021 to learn about 6 topics from experts in their field. The ITIT course will have 3 sessions in continental Europe and 3 - 4 sessions in the UK. It promises to be a truly memorable course.

PSI Webinar: Patient preference studies

In this webinar you will hear an introduction to what a patient preference study is as well as an overview of where this type of study can inform regulatory decision making. This will be followed by 2 examples looking at potential approaches to eliciting patient preference.

A PSI Training Course - R for SAS Users

This course is aimed at Statisticians and Programmers experienced in SAS, but little or no experience with R. An Introduction to R studio and the R language, statistical graphics, programming statistical models, simulations and more…

PSI Toxicology SIG Workshop

PSI Toxicology SIG workshop – 24th and 25th November 2020 The Toxicology SIG provides a forum for statisticians working in regulatory/investigative toxicology, as well as most other pre-clinical areas, to discuss issues and interact with one another. This 1.5-day workshop will involve approximately 20 statisticians, focusing on discussions around “best practice” in the statistical analysis of various data types. The afternoon of Day 1 will include a 4.5 hour Bayesian training course focused towards applications in toxicology/pre-clinical, provided by Prof. Dr. Katja Ickstadt and is included in the workshop fee. The cost will be £270 including VAT per delegate, inclusive of food and one night’s accommodation (and the training course). The workshop is being held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Heathrow. The agenda and topics that will be discussed are yet to be finalised, but please get in touch with gareth.thomas@covance.com if you have suggestions. Full details will be circulated in the coming weeks.

Latest Jobs

Clinical Statistics - Statistician/Principal Statistician

GSK has a thriving global community of Oncology statisticians supporting our commitment to the development of new oncology therapies with the life-changing potential of helping patients with cancer. Click to learn about our exciting career opportunities.

Clinical Statistics Leader

GSK has a thriving global community of Oncology statisticians supporting our commitment to the development of new oncology therapies with the life-changing potential of helping patients with cancer. Click to learn about our exciting career opportunities.

Expert in Clinical Trial Methodology

Biometrics at AstraZeneca provides the data that influences decisions on how we roll back the frontiers of science to bring life-changing medicines to the world. We are at the heart of design, analytics and interpretation of AstraZeneca’s portfolio.

Head - Medical Market Access Statistics

GSK has a thriving global community of Oncology statisticians supporting our commitment to the development of new oncology therapies with the life-changing potential of helping patients with cancer. Click to learn about our exciting career opportunities.

Manager Biostatistics

We offer an interesting, diversified and challenging position, good contractual conditions, flexible working models, all the social benefits of a modern company and a professional environment where you will have the opportunity for personal growth.

Senior Manager Biostatistics

We offer an interesting, diversified and challenging position, good contractual conditions, flexible working models, all the social benefits of a modern company and a professional environment where you will have the opportunity for personal growth.

Senior/Lead Biostatistician

Wish you were here? Recognised recently as a Top CRO by Life Science Leader, Premier Research is a medium sized, full service, global CRO with circa 1,500 employees worldwide, perfectly positioned to be big enough to help, yet small enough to care.

Senior/Principal Biostatistician

We currently have vacancies in our Early Phase and Late Phase Teams, for either home or office based positions across EMEA, so please reach out for more information.

Statisticians - All Levels

Why not come and work for a company recognised as one of the UK's Top 25 Best Big Companies to Work For. The continued growth of our pipeline means we have opportunities for exceptional statisticians at all levels to join our Biostatistics group.